Tuesday 9th April Solar imaging woes.

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10.50 45/42F, clear sky with bright sunshine.

WL: The spot is now well clear of the limb at 9.00. East.

H-a: The spot is now very visible and accompanied by two filaments. With a heavily disturbed area stretching right back towards the limb.

Prominences slightly north and south of the active area. Proms also on opposite limb and elsewhere.

I really don't know why I bother trying to image with the Neximage5.  The artifacts completely swamp the capture screen and final image. I have run the same 1000 frame video through Registax three times or more and still ended up with this mess. I need a tilt plate and a better camera! The 5 in Neximage5 stands for 5FPS! It takes ages to capture 1000 frames! Roughly 3.5 minutes! During which the image field should remain unmoved. A faster camera can capture lucky moments of good seeing without demanding long periods of precise tracking.

My FTF 3.5" base adapter ring has arrived a day early after getting lost with UPS. I'll have to put the ring in the lathe to bore out the inside.To  make room for the main body clearance. Which I didn't know anything about before the focuser arrived. The male thread on the ring looks to be the right diameter and the finish and anodizing are excellent.  So I had better protect it from the jaws of the chuck! Not that any of it will be visible when safely in place on the back plate.

I shan't waste valuable sunshine on it this afternoon. The fine spring weather breaks tomorrow so I'll have a go at it then. The tubular body of the focuser housing is about 121mm outside diameter. There is an added complication of a draw tube stop screw. This will need a notch cut in the inner shoulder of the ring.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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